Nimbit Frontier

I've played mannnyyy EA games. Most I just pick up, play for 4-5 hours and shelve them until full release because of how bare they feel. But I can already tell this one is going to be a problem >.<. Do you guys remember the 'Field of Mistria' EA launch? How polished it was? It was absolute quality and vision right from the start. I felt like I was playing (an almost) finished product. Those are the vibes I am getting here.
This game looks and plays wonderfully on the steam deck. The art is hands down my favourite part. It is a style I haven't really seen before, sleek and futuristic. On screen you don't get a lot of character facial features or clothing detail, it almost appears minimalistic. But when you talk with people, the character portrait art is displayed and that is where you are able to admire it all. It is really beautifully done. I do wish there were more options to customize your character beyond choosing your hairstyle (with limited choices) and colour scheme.
I consider myself a very moody gamer. Sometimes I feel like shooters, sometimes I want farming, sometimes I want light puzzles. This game offers a bit of everything which I wasn't expecting. At it's core, it is creature collecting (nimbits). But in order to do that, you have to engage in some roguelike dungeon crawling. While diving, you can mine and forage. When you are not diving, you can explore and engage with a whole storyline and village. You have choices to make. Relationships to strengthen. You not only catch creatures, but you raise them and build the habitat they live in. There is even farming and fishing!!
Do you want to become the strongest nimbiteer? Catch them all? Maybe your focus is discovering nimbits and caring for them in your sanctuary in hopes of releasing as many back into the wild. In this game you are given these choices, to be the creature collector you want to be with themes of conservation at the heart.
I haven't encountered any issues. I have no complaints but will update this review as I continue playing with suggestions, if I have any. The only thing I would like to see are more weapon variations. Right now you have a sword for melee combat. It would be cool if there were ranged options as well for people who prefer that playstyle.
I've only just started but I am excited to see what this grows into. The premise and characters are interesting and I am enjoying the gameplay. It is very clear that love and care were put into this EA launch. And I appreciate that so much. I feel like my time and the money I invested in this game are being respected.
Thank you for showing us what an EA game should look like, well done!
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I love this game so much! I can't begin to express how fun it is. I was a tester and have over 150 hours in the test version. It runs great on my Steam Deck. It's so cute and cozy but you can also choose to play a harder version. The day length can be customized as well so you don't feel rushed trying to get stuff done. You also don't faint and are not forced to sleep at a certain time. The clock will stop at midnight and you can do your farming and decorating and tending your Nimbits without pressure. Once you go to bed, the game begins a new day. You can also save anytime, except in the Underwild (Dungeon), but the game will autosave when you start a run.
The dungeons is where this game really shines. With all the different charms and artifact combos you randomly get each run feels fresh. You can choose different paths for each floor, choosing to go fishing or harvesting plants or fighting more Mimnocks. I love listening to an audiobook and just spending about an hour exploring all 3 biomes, but you can also choose to visit just one or 2 and in any order you prefer. Different weather and times affects what appears, everything from the Nimbits available to the items you find. You also aren't rushed because you can unlock a charm that makes it daytime even at night. So you need a mushroom that only shows up on sunny mornings, not a problem if you picked that card for the day.
The game is also very simple on the surface level but once you really start to understand it, it's actually pretty complex. You can raise Nimbits to release as soon as they learn a handful of skills or you can perfect their habits based on each ones individual needs and get a perfect rank. You choose a path in the beginning that makes it easier, so you can play however you chose. You aren't forced to understand the hidden mechanics behind it and it's actually pretty easy to get them to S rank, by grouping them 4 at a time of the same species, but you can also mix them up and give yourself more of a challenge. The game really lets you make it as simple or complex as you want.
The art is amazingly adorable too especially your dog. And the NPCs are hot! I want to date them all! The devs are very responsive to feedback and player input and run a very cozy and friendly Discord server as well, so definitely join if you are on Discord.

VERY cute and fun creature collector game where you can actually care for the creatures and act as a conservationist! The art style is super fun and pleasing, the dialogue is fun and easy to follow, and the music is really good so far! The combat is not the typical turn based combat and instead is a action style combat with roguelike dungeon diving mechanics! I love it very much so far and would definitely recommend for fans of creature collector and roguelike games!

Great game! Very cute, I like a lot of it.
Positives:
- Three different paths. I only experienced one, but they all allow you to progress your rank in different ways
- Villagers have lively personalities
- Growing and raising the Nimbit is cute and satisfieng, especially once you unlock the coral.
- No pressure in the dungeon. Once it's 'Late' time will stop progressing. You can still continue your delve, only the city is asleep.
- many different capture devices, which buff your catching chance depending on different variables (time of day, enviromental factors like puddles, debuffs like being on fire, or what you have in your inventory)
- You can unlock a feature pretty early on that changes the rules of your next run slightly.
Negatives:
- The city seems very empty. The people are alive and have personalites, and do their own thing... but you can interact with very little. Gus for example. He gave us a quest to open a geode up, and he has the machine for it in his own house... but that is when Gus stops mattering in the game. He doesn't want anything to do with geodes after that, he doesn't buy then, doesn't process them (like in jewelrey), doesn't collect it, gives no educational infos about the minerals you found, nothing really.
- Delving can get a bit boring, sadly. After every section of the depths you are stopped from progression, until you find 4 specific items. Finding those items are depending on your luck, as finding the right fish even in a fishing stage in the right section is not guaranteed. Until you progress you will find very few new Nimbits, the game won't vary all that much in difficulty (and I never fainted anyways, so it could use more challenge), and you won't see all that many new environments.
Combine this with the fact that there are very few fighting styles (sword, bomb, fire bomb) and everything starts to feel a little same-y.

I am not a pro gamer, but I am very much a cozy game connoisseur. I understand the usual set up for cozy games- a grandparent gives you a cottage somewhere remote and you become a farmer! I love that trope. HOWEVER- this game is not that. It finally shakes up the status quo of farmlife cozy games. Instead of fighting in a cave, you have a dungeon crawler. Instead of a farm, you have a biodome-like ranch. I also appreciate the step away from pixel-graphics and bringing a fresh look on animation. It reminds me of cult of the lamb, meets pokemon (which is a clear inspiration- in a good way, as it's respectful), meets your typical farm sim game.

My only negative critique is that right now, until you have enough nimbits, there isn't a lot to do. It takes a week or two of in-game time to get into the typical grind cycle. However, I don't entirely mind this. So many games over-simplify things, and it's always bothered me slightly. I like a challenge. There's also not a ton of story, but that's to be expected for EA.


I can't wait to see more of the game moving forward!

10-/10.
+++ farming and monster collecting blend
+++ manual save anywhere
+++ no penalty for staying up late
+++ two difficulty choices
+ a smaller selection of tools, no axe or bug catching net
+++ soundtrack, chill vibes
+/- visuals could use some more oomph, though
+/- NPCs are also okay/so-so, could use more work or variety
--- toolbar keys can be rebound, but their icons (pickaxe, sword, etc) stay in the same place
+/- a lot of grind
+ shop prices seem balanced okay
- seems like breaking rocks doesn't drop anything
+ cool activities, some minigames like fishing are very cool even compared to other farming sims
+ gameplay options that can be turned on or off (such as fainting)
--- not much to do right now, the town and the world are very small
+ okay variety of monsters down below the rim
+/- albeit not many monsters to collect, right now
- English only, no languages, no localisation for peeps who want it (idc about that really, mentioning it only for this review)

The game is pretty fun, it basically feels like a cross between Stardew Valley and Cult of the Lamb. It feels more like its a rogue-lite than a cozy sim though.
Every day has a clock similar to Stardew, and the townspeople move around the town based off the time on the clock, but there is no time limit in a day. After 12pm it just shows "Late" indefinitely, which means you don't have to chose between taking care of Nimbits, doing quests for townspeople, or going to the under wild for the rogue-like mode.
Optimally you do everything and start your rogue-like run at night to finish your day off, playing like this essentially makes every day a different "run" since going to the under wild feels more mandatory than optional. However, it's also pretty nice not being pressed for time and feeling like you missed your chances to collect materials because you spent too much time managing your Nimbit habitats or doing quests for townsfolk.